Newport Green Party leader turns over a new Leaf and ditches her Jag

A NEWPORT eco-activist has waved bye-bye to her petrol-powered Jaguar in favour of a British-built electric car.

Malpas-based Pippa Bartolotti, leader of the Green Party in Wales and an owner of a Nissan Leaf, says: “We have got to practice what we preach.

"There’s too much emissions and too much pollution and I don’t want to be a part of it," she said.

The eco-activist got rid of her Jaguar about a year ago and bought the Leaf, which is built in Sunderland, at the end of last summer.

She can charge the car at home saying that if it’s sunny she can charge it using solar panels, as well as at other charging points.

Ms Bartolotti’s X-type Jag raised some eyebrows back in 2012 when she was running to be leader of the Green Party in England and Wales.

The Independent had reported her saying she was not “suddenly” going to start driving an electric car she could charge "hardly anywhere", while much of the energy would come from coal-fired power stations.

But Ms Bartolloti told the Argus things have changed since then. Her electricity provider guarantees that her electricity is sourced from renewable power, while there are more charging points coming up month by month.

In theory, if driven perfectly, the Leaf can give 123 miles on a full charge.

“I didn’t use the old car for that much anyway,” she said.

She said she had bought the Jag more than 10 years ago when she lived a different life when she “needed to do some things that were not so green in order to keep my job”, she added.

Ipsoregulated

This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then please contact the editor here. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can contact IPSO here